John Grimshaw wrote: "Of course it must agree in gender! Allium is a neuter
noun so any adjectives
in Latin must agree with it and have a neuter -um ending, not a feminine -a,

Unless it was published before 1957 the use of 'Album' is illegitimate
anyway, and a name in a vernacular language should be substituted."

Maybe I should have been a lawyer.

Suppose I have a good friend whose nickname is "Album". And suppose this
name is not derived from the Latin, but rather in his non-Indo-European
language this combination of transliterated letters means "prodigious
quaffer of beer".

Surely I may name a cultivar for him and call it 'Album'.

Or may I?

On consideration, I would hope that I could name a cultivar 'Alba' to
commemorate an Italian friend of that name.

And does the international code require that authors explain the etymology
of specific epithets or generic names? I don't recall seeing that in the
code; is it there?

Jim McKenney
jimmckenney@jimmckenney.com
Montgomery County, Maryland, USA, USDA zone 7, where it's finally raining.
My Virtual Maryland Garden http://www.jimmckenney.com/